We awoke, and made our way north from the hotel.
Cutting our way through Shibuya streets, we continued north to Yoyogi Park.
We arrived at the base of Yoyogi Park and headed east, towards Harajuku and Meiji Shrine.
Before long, we arrived at the beautiful Meiji Shrine entrance.
We entered the serene shrine grounds.
As we walked, we saw a procession of Monks ahead.
Curious, we followed behind them, watching along with the other visitors.
At the end of the procession, we entered the main temple grounds.
For our second anniversary, we made a wish on a placard.
The main temple was buzzing with visitors.
After a good look around, we exited the grounds.
Looping back around in a clockwise arc, we made our way back through the shrine entrance.
We then continued east, across to Harajuku.
Harajuku is such a contrast to the quiet, serene Meiji shrine. The young, fashionable city in Tokyo, it was quietly bustling on this cool Sunday morning.
We made our way down the crowded Takashita-dori street in search of comcrêpe—a crêpe store specialising in crème brûlée crêpes.
Unfortunately, it turned out the store was closed for renovations.
We found a dessert place nearby we’d tried last year, that more than made up for Comcrêpe’s temporary closure.
ZAKUZAKU
- ¥¥
- Price
- Dessert
- Shop
At Croquant Chou Zaku Zaku, we both opted to try a limited time Blueberry Cheese pastry.
The pastry was crispy and golden, with a light, rich filling inside. The blueberry cheese coating added a refreshing zing.
The pastry felt so light that we decided to balance it witgh another snack—this time something more savoury.
Calbee+
- ¥¥
- Price
- Chip
- Shop
We entered Calbee+ and lined up.
Calbee is a popular brand of chips in Japan, available at most convenience stores and grocery shops.
Here, they cook and prepare their chips fresh for you to eat.
We reached the front of the line and placed our order.
Once cooked, we took our chips upstairs to the dining area.
The chips were very enjoyable fresh, in particular we loved the shoestring fry cut chips. They have much more flavour fresh.
After a quick look around some stores in Harajuku (including a cosplay store with wigs for Anime characters), we decided to grab an early lunch at Ichiran to avoid typical queues.
Ichiran
- ¥¥
- Price
- Ramen
- Shop
Our strategy paid off, as we were seated and soon had delicious bowls of ramen placed in front of us.
One delicious bowl of ramen later, we left Ichiran, spotting a rather large queue for lunch as we departed.
We continued down the small, quaint streets in Harajuku.
After a quick stop in a discount gift store, we made our way for coffee.
The Roastery by Nozy Coffee
- ¥¥
- Price
- Coffee
- Shop
Some rather delicious coffees later, we departed Nozy coffee.
We headed back to our hotel to drop purchases off, and have an early afternoon break.
Later that afternoon, we made our way for Akihabara.
As we arrived, we happened across Akihabara pedestrian paradise which—it turns out—takes place on Sundays.
We strolled along the main strip as sunset approached.
As early evening arrived, we explored a range of stores, including a rather impressively-stocked second hand videogame store.
We whiled away the evening exploring the novel Akihabara shops.
As dinner time arrrived, we decided to revisit another of our favourite pizza places—Devil Craft in Gotanda.
DevilCraft Gotanda
- ¥¥
- Price
- Craft Beer
- Bar
I ordered an 8.1% Xocoveza Mocha Stout, inspired by Mexican Hot Chocolate.
After dinner in Gotanda, we made our way back to our hotel for the night.
